


White Carnations & Red Roses

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cas has Fire Powers, Dean Winchester Has Powers, Dean has Ice Powers, Elemental Magic, M/M, Mutant Powers, None of the supernatural elements from canon exist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-07-29 16:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7692091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in a universe which resembles our own in every aspect but one; humans have a predisposition to gain supernatural abilities - whereupon finding a soulmate with superpowers, you’re certain to develop a complementary power. Castiel has been living with his fire powers and the chaos they’ve continuously brought into his life since he was a teenager. Dean’s ice powers didn’t begin to manifest until he moved back to his childhood hometown of  Lawrence, but he’s not a teenager anymore and that soulmate crap is a load of garbage anyway. (tl;dr: Why don’t they realise that their powers absolutely complement each other and that yes, they made a soulmate bond so we can all just go home?)</p><p>Some similarities to X-Men if you squint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PROLOGUE

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I don’t own anyone or anything. The characters are borrowed and this is entirely for entertainment purposes. Etc etc.
> 
>  **A/N:** Full disclosure before I start, this story started as something else entirely; a whole different ship from a whole different fandom and from before I had even watched a single episode of Supernatural. While I’m not so involved with that other fandom or ship anymore I still had chapters and chapters of this concept that still pops into my head occasionally just sitting gathering dust in my documents and I needed it to become the DeanCas AU I knew it could be… So I spent a bit of time messing with it to shape it into something more fitting to the characters of Supernatural and here it is! *~You probably didn't notice but I posted this first part a couple of weeks ago and then took it back down because my anxiety about posting stuff I've written got the better of me... If it looks familiar that's why. Also if you know me in real life please just turn away now, this wasn't intended for you.~*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As this is the prologue there’s not a lot of actual plot but all the information included is important in establishing the universe of the story, plus there is some Cas backstory.

Powers.

“Super” Powers.

Elemental Manipulation. 

Attributes that Cas is no stranger to.

Attributes that Cas is no personal stranger to. 

Thought he’ll be the first to acknowledge that this wasn’t always the case, he’s now acquainted with people with all sorts of magical abilities. He’s now able to spend time around people with all kinds of diverse powers. He may even consider himself friends with a great number of people of the sort. Occasionally even branching to close friends.

People “of the sort”, whose abilities developed during their years of adolescence, in what’s considered the ‘natural’ period for affinity manifestation. A time when, at puberty, young people’s lives are already changing and becoming awkward enough, without the addition of these extra adjustments. When you realise that _great, now you’ve been lumped with this mass responsibility on top of having to worry about the dangers of the school yard and calculus homework and growth spurts._ And as with standard puberty, many kids have survived it and come out on top, occasionally even finding themselves a completely different person at the end of their biological journey through maturity. 

Well, previously mentioned “mass responsibility” comes only after the power actually manifests, after the painful and emotionally draining period of development, which brings its own varied array of symptoms all of which aren’t even documented due to their abundance. Symptoms can differ depending on the power you’ve been blessed (or cursed as some may say, glass half empty vs. glass half full and all) with. 

There are so many recorded symptoms that it takes up eleven whole pages in a small-print medical journal or for the more technologically advanced, which in these days is considerably the majority, a fuck-load of scroll-downs on the US government's Super Powers Wiki. 

The list itself is ever expanding. And anyone who has experienced developing a power knows that some symptoms are standard, everyone goes through them, and some are more unique. Not that Cas has a lot of comparison points, not a situation a lot of people find themselves in in the small town of Wamego, Kansas, where he and his family spent his teenage years living in (after Morris, Illinois, and before Lawrence, Kansas; his family moved a lot because, and he’d never say this to his face, his father was a paranoid b-word whose job as a semi-successful writer enabled him to work from anywhere.No matter where they lived though, the lodgings were always small and so old and used they were barely standing). He had never knowingly met anyone with superpowers aside from himself when his own power manifested. Which at the time was a relief, he has never been good with people anyway, but looking back he thinks having someone to confide in back then wouldn’t have been all bad.

Once making the move to Lawrence, and subsequently starting at the University of Kansas that fall and beyond that, into his life as a fully functional adult and citizen of the city he has met so many people with powers that he’s become accustomed to all kinds of so-called strange happenings than he could have ever dreamed of at his former address. His father moved on approximately a year after their arrival in the city, his paranoia about the creatures in his stories being real and dangerous and the urge to seek greener creative pastures driving him away, and the last Cas heard he was living in New York. But for Castiel himself, he has spent close twelve years calling Lawrence, Kansas his home, the longest he has ever lived in any one place in his whole life. It isn’t his home town, that title lies with Pontiac, Illinois, for that was where he was born and the only place he knew his mother before she took off, but he certainly has no intention of moving anywhere else.

He hadn’t known before he had applied, had only done so because he was already living in Kansas at the time but the University of Kansas has one of the largest rates of students and staff with powers and abilities in the USA, only beaten from the top by NYU, University of Michigan and all the usual performing arts school suspects. That could be because certain high profile schools are prejudiced against those with powers at admissions and so there are fewer schools where those with powers can attend. It’s obvious which schools will judge on this by whether they ask you about it outright during the admission process or not. 

Biased practises like this are something that Castiel and his co-workers are slowly fighting to change, he knows the real change comes from those with the power to change policy and more importantly minds, but since his own college days he’s tried to play a small part in making the world more accepting of those who are different from themselves, at least inside his own classrooms and lecture halls as a Psychology professor at the university. _Studies show that people with powers are similar to everyone else, studies show that people with powers are no more violent than anyone else, studies show that people with powers cause no harm than anyone else when living amongst regular human society and yes this was studied at various socioeconomic levels._ and whatever other ‘hot topic’ issue Fox News is bringing to his students minds at present. And this isn’t even his area of expertise, he’s the Cognitive Psychology Professor. He usually lectures Psych 101 students on memory and information retention. 

Still he can’t judge people for their upbringing, many parents don’t touch on powers until one of their own begins to develop them and at that point it’s touch and go whether the parents will even still accept their kid or not, teenagers are kicked to the curb for this thing they can’t control so often that homes with kids with powers are overcrowded places that are oftentimes too unbearable to even live in. Some parents don’t even inform siblings about their own siblings abilities and treat it like it’s something shameful to even talk about. Kids from parents with abilities of their own usually fare better but that is not always the case and a lot of regular parents are accepting but misguided. As someone who guides young minds who have usually just left their parents reach for the first time, Cas feels like he’s see it all. So many students come to him and his co-workers for information, especially at the start of each year with an influx of new students, that he can almost recite the textbook information from memory. 

 

_Human beings are born with a predisposition to develop powers, which then may be triggered through biological causes, in which a commonly present hormone is triggered in certain people which causes powers to begin to develop during puberty or through environmental causes, which happens far less often._

_It’s still unknown why this happens naturally in certain people and not others when it’s been shown in various studies that all people may have the potential for such a biological ability._

_Powers (or usually just the power to control one natural thing or element eg. fire, water) usually start to develop in a person’s teenage years (due to the influence of said hormone) and are usually fully gained by the end of teen-hood, though it’s up to the individual learn control of their powers - a thing which comes more naturally to some than others, so people have varying degrees of magical ability._

_It has been observed that when a person with the control of a power makes a connection with what we can only describe as a “soul mate”, something that usually happens upon first meeting but not necessarily, this person will also start to develop corresponding or conflicting abilities, something that can only be logically put down to the balancing out their power, however scientists are unsure and many different theories exist._

_This soul mate connection is one of the natural ways in which a person’s power may be triggered to develop outside of adolescence and the one we know significantly most about, though it’s still suspected that there might be others and such a thing can most certainly be achieved scientifically in a laboratory, although the ethical issues pertaining to testing such a thing on human participants again mean there is very little research into the subject._

_A person may make the “soul mate” connection more than once in their life, as their soul mate isn’t pre-defined or destined as some old myths and wives tales may have a person believe, but depends on how they connect with a person (hence their significant other not gaining powers until they meet), so this could happen more than once during a lifetime, though it is rarely observed to happen more than twice in humans. (This could just been due to the shortness of a person’s life and the time it actually takes to make that connection)._

_Though these powers were very useful in the past, there seems to be more gain in the novelty of them now as human society has adapted to function perfectly okay even without the use of magic._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was hefty to rewrite honestly, in my original draft the characters had never lost contact with each other and worked with each other, which no longer fit with the story and some things that were originally in chapter 1 had to be saved for later as more set up was required. Also, this story was originally in present tense and I decided to stick with that, sorry if that's a problem for you.

The tendrils of flame flicker lazily as he absentmindedly releases a string of burning fire from his palm, twisting his hand outwards as though throwing a yo-yo, before reeling it back in again.

He taps the fingers of his other hand against the steering wheel in the semblance of a tune, in a therapeutic lull brought on by the boredom of his current circumstances, sitting at a complete standstill in the city traffic in the Friday evening rush hour. Traffic which he knows he could have avoided if had taken off right after his only lecture of the day instead of heading back to his office where five students had stopped by to speak to him outside of office hours. Only two of the five had questions about Psychology, the other three wanted to talk about powers. He’s always leant an ear and guidance on the topic to students and new students always seek him out at the start of term.

Then on his way out an hour and a half later Sam from the Law department had stopped him to ask about research, when he had finally convinced Sam that Fergus was the one he needed to speak to (Sam visibly balked at this, Cas didn’t blame him) and that Fergus was out until Monday, he knew he had no chance of missing the traffic unless he waited around until it was passed. He took the risk. It was not worth it, the university has food and a computer he can work at and even a TV he can watch to pass the time, the road has angry people getting nowhere faster.

It takes him a while to notice the temperature in the car has been rising since he started idly playing with his magic and, out of habit rather than any real need to cool down, he turns on the car’s air conditioning.

After what seems like forever in the slow moving stream of cars, with cold air mercilessly flowing around him, he pulls off onto a small side road, heading towards home. He finds little wrong with the practised monotony of his routine, the order providing him with comfort in a chaotic world.

He notices the car parked on the curb by the Winchester home immediately, such an old but polished car definitely stands out in the modern world but for Cas the arrival of this particular 1967 Chevrolet Impala means something else entirely. It means the Winchester’s oldest son is home for the first time in many many years. He drives on quickly, knowing he’s drifting over the speed limit.

 

~*~*~

 

Dean knew his parents wouldn’t understand. He should have known anyway. He should have gone to Sam instead. Or Uncle Bobby. But all he really wanted after his two year engagement had broken apart was the familiarity of his childhood home and maybe the understanding words of his mother. He should have known she would side with John from the get-go.

His parents have always wanted him to be _‘normal’_ and settle down into suburban life like them, get a dog and provide them with 2.5 grand-babies. Dean thinks that sometimes he might want that too. That was why he had proposed to Lisa in the first place, bonded with her young son, was even close to visiting a shelter together on Ben’s birthday and picking out a dog for the kid. Still he couldn’t blame Lisa for feeling that what they had was fake, he sometimes felt that way too. They had definitely cared for each other, and it was nice having that built in support system, but they probably didn’t love each other. Not in the romantic sense.

Of course, convincing John Winchester that this is the best course of action was never going to be easy. In the past Dean was generally the first to put his head down and take his father’s crap, Sam was always braver than he when it came to standing up to John. But he’s a fully fledged adult now who should be able to make his own choices and John can rant for days or weeks if he likes, it’s not that there’s any convincing Lisa to change her mind. When he storms out he tells himself that as a fully fledged adult he can storm out if he wants to.

“What’s up brother?” Benny asks the second he arrives at the family owned restaurant, recently inherited by his long term friend after the passing of the prior owners, Benny’s Aunt and Uncle. It’s not the only business in town Benny owns, he and his wife Andrea also have part ownership of a series of Hardware Stores. But from their semi-regular Skype calls Dean knows that Benny much prefers to be on the ground at the restaurant. Benny also happened to be the only person in town Dean had told of his return, it was planned so abruptly, he was packed and on the road to Lawrence within 16 hours of Lisa asking to call off the engagement. Both of their names were on the apartment but it made more sense for him to leave, despite her having family in town and him not, he didn’t exactly want to upend the kid from his home after all.

It’s no surprise Benny had been the one Dean had contacted first, he’s felt comfortable offloading his issues on Benny since 4th grade, knowing Benny will tell it like it is and persuade him to get his shit back into line. While he had made a handful of new friends since leaving Lawrence to attend college four whole years too late (but at 22 he at least wasn't the _oldest_ student on campus), Benny had remained a best friend.

Dean pulls up a chair at the bar and Benny edges around the counter to sit by him and gestures the bartender to bring over some beers.

“They didn’t take it well,” Dean says, glancing around the fairly bustling restaurant in person for the first time. “This place looks much more awesome in person, congrats man.”

“Thanks, been reopened for a couple of months now and business in this place has never been better,” Benny tells him, pulling the bears over and handing one to Dean. There’s a beat of easy silence between the two, broken only by the sounds from the kitchen and customers before Benny speaks again.

“What are you going to do?”

“Hell if I know, find a place here I guess.”

“Well, if you need work -” Benny starts, before he spots movement by the door and trails off, turning to speak to someone else.

“Heya Cas!” He gets up to move around the bar and towards the kitchen. “The usual?”

But Cas doesn’t answer, he shuffles visibly backwards towards the door as his eyes meet Dean’s.

“Cas.”

“Hello, Dean.”

~*~*~*

Cas had not thought running into Dean would happen so soon if at all. He didn’t think before heading over to Benny’s to collect his regular, weekly take out that Dean might be there. Granted, they had all been close friends in High School and then for a few years after that and he knows Dean and Benny had been friends even longer than that, but he’s so used to minimal disruptions to his life and he hadn’t even considered this possibility. He’s slightly blind-sighted. Dean sounds a little shocked at seeing him here too, if the way he says his name is anything to go by. Hearing his name causes him to fall back to himself however and the slowly heating air around him lowers back to room temperature.

“Hello, Dean.” He says, moving to lean against the bar and wait for Benny to return with his food. He doesn’t know what to say to Dean, just because they were once friends doesn’t mean they still are. He knows Benny and Dean stayed in touch after Dean left, but he and Dean pretty much lost all contact. As far as Cas knows they were just too busy to stay a part of each other's life. Any efforts on his part were met with delayed responses and unanswered calls and soon no responses at all. After about a year he stopped trying. Besides, Cas he was already so used to having to leave the few friends he made behind due to his father that it was almost normal for him to lose another one. Just because he was used to it didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt though. He pulls out his phone to text Charlie as an excuse to not make further conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really sure about how long I should be making these chapters. I ended up splitting my original "Chapter 2" into three segments but now I worry that this is too short.

Dean jolts awake from an obscure dream about ice and heat, the content of which becoming more lost to him as consciousness floods his brain and the tendrils of sleep slide away. He quickly glances around the room for signs of what might have woke him, but despite the unfamiliar but familiar surroundings nothing appears to be out of place. 

Except- He’s shaking under the blankets, his skin freezing cold. The chill in the air is icy enough that he can see his breath which even in his current state doesn’t seem right to him considering the time of year. He checks the windows - all closed - before searching for extra layers of clothes to pull on.

~*~*~*~*~*

The next time he awakes he’s nestled right into a pile of his clothes and extra blankets and he wants to shoot or stab his father’s alarm clock which noisily blares from down the hall- signalling that it’s now 6:30am, the temperature in his room mostly seems normal now but his fingertips are still numb with cold.

He’s fully aware that he has to face his father at some point but he still contemplates attempting to fall back to sleep for an extra couple of hours and not showing his face until the coast is clear of his father. The need to warm up his hands is what eventually rouses him from his bed though. The atmosphere in the kitchen is almost as icy as his hands feel as he pours himself a hot cup of coffee and pretends he can’t feel both of his parent’s eyes boring into the back of his head. 

They make it through breakfast in silence before his mother asks “Are you staying here long?” to which he’s unsure how to answer. The sooner he has his own place the better. He’s saved from answering by John grunting, but the man never says anything.

He pours another coffee into a travel mug and heads out, probably earlier than his younger self ever left that house, but he needs some time to just _be_ without the oppressive atmosphere and awkwardness of being a grown man who moved back in with his parents. Living once again with John Winchester is a step back he promised himself he would never take.

It’s not that John has ever been any particular brand of awful and his Mom and Dad did do the job of keeping him and Sammy alive with a roof over their heads while they were growing up. But Dean and John have never seen eye to eye on many things, especially on matters such as whether respect should be demanded or earned. (Dean falls strongly on the side of earned, obviously). 

Speaking on his brother… He should probably visit and catch the yeti up on everything sooner rather than later. Especially before John Winchester puts his own spin on the situation. 

The chill from the night before returns to his skin as his drink empties, so he heads inside a nearby coffee shop. He searches around for a table nursing his third hot drink of the morning listening to the sound of the dial tone as he waits for Sam to answer, no one around him seems to notice the cold though, one guy walks by his window seat wearing shorts and sandals.

Sam doesn’t pick up. He’s about to call again when he notices a familiar face heading through the doors of the small shop. Cas again. He stands and calls out to him, although he’s not sure what to even say to him beyond the initial greeting. The last time they had a real conversation was a long time ago.

“Hey, we keep meeting!”

“It’s a small neighbourhood.” 

“Right. Well, what’s up?” He’s better at small talk than this, he is. But things are so _awkward_ now, it’s a palpable thing filling the space around them.

Cas seems eager to leave the stilted conversation, which he doesn’t blame him. They were friends a long time ago but that means nothing in the now. And it was Dean who became too caught up in his new life to bother with the old and that’s his own fault entirely. 

The only reason he still has any friends still in Lawrence is because they were too persistent and forgiving. He’s aware that they shouldn’t have had to do that and if they didn’t he’d be pretty much on his own now. He could apologise but so much time has passed and he wouldn’t know how to even begin that conversation. He’s definitely thought about it in the past on those days full of thoughts of nostalgia where he’d lose himself in a few glasses of whatever was on the top shelf and dig too deep into the Facebook pit. But at some point the ship had sailed on rebuilding his old bridges and he hasn’t seriously considered it in years.

Yet the thought of passing by Cas as though he’s some random stranger sits wrong in his gut.

His hands are so cold. His whole body is freezing. He should have wrapped up warmer. No… He shouldn’t need to because it’s basically still summer. His breath is visible in the air again. He can see Cas’s mouth moving but he’s not sure of the words. His hands shake against the coffee cup and he curls in on himself a little more to attempt to preserve some heat. 

Cas’s mouth stops what appears to be mid sentence and for a split second it crosses Dean’s mind that he’s mad he’s not being listened to, but then his hands are out in front of him and he steps forward slightly to steady Dean on his feet.

“Are you okay?” 

“It’s-s-s s-s-o-o co-o-l-d.” His teeth actually chatter when he speaks and the empty cup in his hand clatters to the table as he loses grip on it. Cas’s face changes from worry to open curiosity to concern to a forced neutral before the paper cup even stills against the smooth surface. 

He feels Cas’s hand press against his forehead as piercing blue eyes stare back into his, then he frowns slightly before schooling his features.The hand against his head heats up drastically as Cas puts his power into it, the other hand settling on his arm and sending heat through his entire body. 

The warmth greatly improves the condition of, well, whatever is happening to him and he’s slowly able to pay attention to the world around him again, but he’s still not warm enough.

“How long has this been happening?” Cas questions, the tilt of his head indicating that he’s no longer hiding his curiosity but it’s hard for Dean to read any meaning behind the monotony of Cas’s voice, especially when the cold clawing at his very soul (or so it feels) is preventing his brain isn’t working at full capacity. 

This version of Cas doesn’t quite gel neatly with the version of Cas from his memories. Dean knows that when Cas is being open with other people he’s more expressive, less matter-of-fact and yet, aside from his worry over Dean’s condition this version of the other man is closed off and almost cold. Not that he blames him. This is someone who he used to share his most intimate secrets with, but now can barely share small talk in a coffee shop with. Still, the icy cold in is veins is tearing him apart from the inside and Cas is all he has right now. 

“Since, like, last night? That’s when I noticed. I thought it was just the temperature changing.”

“Of course you did.” Cas mumbles, he’s still looking him over with a reserved curiosity but Dean picks up on the dry undertone of his words where a passing stranger would not. Some knowledge of the fundamentals of another person don’t just slip away over years of absence for their life.

“Have you met anyone new recently?” 

The question throws him for a loop as it seems to be out of nowhere, yet for the most part Cas seems to know what he’s doing.

“Sure, I meet people every time I leave the h-” He starts to explain.

“I mean,” Cas interrupts “have you met anyone who has had a significant effect on your life recently?”

“How would I know that?”

“You would - You know what? It’s probably just flu.” Cas determines, stepping away. “You should see a doctor. Have a good day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> I created a small anonymous poll about the length of this chapter which will really help me out if you want to answer (please): http://www.strawpoll.me/12340065


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I'm currently doing this as an ongoing thing the current list of tags may not be the complete list, I'll obviously add the extra tags along the way if there's a need to. I say this because I've been debating with myself over whether this is a 'slow burn' fic or not... The answer is: I don't know. We haven't even touched on the existence of non-platonic feelings yet so probably. I don't know.

“It’s probably just flu,” Sam tells him over the phone, after he’s finally gotten a hold of his brother and filled him in with far too much information about his life in a short amount of time. 

The phone call is the most they’ve actually talked about anything of substance in ages, it wasn’t only his friends he fell out of touch with in his time away from Lawrence. The thing about siblings, in Dean’s experience anyway, is that they’re more forgiving than estranged best friends about things like only contacting them once a month. The bonds of a shared childhood outweigh the separation, conversations with Sam no matter how far apart from the last never feel stifled and awkward. 

“Doesn’t feel like flu,” Dean complains, he’s exhausted down to his core and he’s allowed to be a little grumpy. A lot grumpy. Whatever.

Finding out that Sam has a sofa he’s willing to part with so that Dean doesn’t have to wake up under the same roof as their father every day until he’s back on his feet is the best thing to come out of finally taking time to speak to his brother.

~*~*~*~

Later on, sitting at his brother’s tiny kitchen table and eating a late lunch after lugging his few belongings up to his brother’s third floor apartment, the conversation turns to Cas. Or Dean intentionally directs it that way. Same thing.

“Do you remember Cas? Castiel?”

Sam looks at him like he’s forgotten his head.

“Hard to forget someone you work with.”

“You work with Cas?” He asks, wondering why his brother has never mentioned this before. He and Cas were friends after all.

“I mean… He’s not from the law department but I see him around so yes. We say hi occasionally.”

“You never told me.”

“It’s not like you’ve been Mr. Chatty these last couple of years, anyway, you didn’t seem to care,” His brother says, laying on the guilt. “Cas used to ask me how you were doing, at some point I think he realised I had no idea and stopped.”

“You realise I didn’t mean to be such a shitty brother or friend these past few years right?” He asks because it seems important to put that out there.

“I know. I’ve always known. At first I thought you were just blocking _us_ out because you were more and more fed up with Dad. Then the more time passed the more I assumed it was just how things had become, especially when I spoke to a few of your old friends and they said they barely heard from you.”

“I’m sorry,” If there’s one thing he’s learned far too late in life it’s that sometimes a sorry is all you can give.

“I know, but I think maybe you have a lot of bridges to fix now,” says Sam, ever forgiving. “Why do you ask about Cas?”

“It’s nothin’, I keep bumping into him. He said I could have flu. But he didn’t say it like he believed it. Not like you did.”

“Either that or someone with ice powers has a serious grudge against you, dude. Do you know anyone with ice powers?”

“Only person I know with powers is Cas, and his are fire.”

It genuinely seems to shock Sam that Cas has any kind of powers. 

“Wait? I’ve known the dude for actual years and I’m just learning now about this?”

“You didn’t know?”

“We pass each other in the corridor at work every so often and exchange small talk, it doesn’t exactly come up,” Sam explains. “Besides he was _your_ best friend.”

“Benny was my best friend.”

“Nuh-uh, Benny may have been your best friend up until Cas moved to town then... Cas was your best friend,” Sam insists.

~*~*~*~

Sam owns a space heater which he allows Dean to keep running through the night as he sleeps, which is awesome because the cold doesn’t wake Dean up once… and he’s thankful for the extra rest. He even sleeps right through his brother leaving early in the morning for some research seminar. ( _“A research seminar? Well that sounds… riveting. Truly.”_ ) It’s the first morning since coming back to Lawrence that Dean has been able to sleep past 6:30am and wake up of his own accord. He’s so thankful for his brother’s tiny apartment.

Having nowhere to be and no one to answer to, Dean remains nestled in his blankets after he awakes, watching movies on a TV that is way too large for the small space it occupies. Kind of like his sasquatch of a brother. 

His phone ringing and disrupting the peaceful bubble he’s created for himself makes him jump out of his skin. From the jist of the phone conversation, a man named Fergus who apparently has never heard of email left a file for Sam at the University and Sam requires Dean to collect it for him so he can look over it when he returns tonight. Dean loathes the thought of moving from the warm cocoon he’s created for himself but gets up to find his shoes anyway.

“Don’t you have any friends who could go?”

“Yes. But you’re my _brother_ and I’m letting you live on my couch rent free.”

*~*~*~*

He’s lost. He parked far away from the campus because he wasn’t sure about the parking situation and now he’s lost and unsure where to go or who to ask. Also he’s freezing cold and probably should have never left Sam’s sofa.

Surprisingly there aren’t that many people around the college on a Sunday who he can ask. He rubs his hands together to try and generate heat as he attempts to view a map of the college on his phone.

He hears someone approach, presuming it to be just a passer by until a familiar voice says his name. There’s a moment of instant relief, still he feels so cold he might just keel over and freeze to death, despite the extra layers he’s currently wearing.

“Dean?” Cas repeats, this time with more concern, but Dean doesn’t feel like he can respond and instead opts for slowly hitting the ground as he passes out.

~*~*~*~*~

He awakes to the sight of a stark white ceiling and the sound of silence, with the memory of falling to the floor fresh in his mind and so for a small moment worries that he might have died. But then the rest of the room comes into focus, as does Castiel’s face, and why would his (ex-)friend be up in heaven with him? And why would the afterlife look like a school nurse's office for that matter?

“You fell and hit your head,” Cas supplies before he can speak.

“You can’t still tell me that this is the flu,” Dean tries to say, hoping the words come out correctly.

“You-”

“You don’t have the flu,” A younger man supplies, entering the room, from his outfit Dean assumes that this is the nurse whose office he’s currently in. “You did have quite the fall there though.”

“What’s wrong with me?” He asks. He notices the temperature in the room is set very high, probably for his benefit, and wonders how the other occupants are coping with it.

“Well Professor Novak here must have told you… He’s our local expert after all.”

“I was _easing_ him into it Justin.” Cas snaps at the young nurse.

“Expert in wha-?”

“He-”

“Justin, I’ve got this. Can you go?”

Justin closes his still open mouth and does as asked.

“Alright, look, can you just tell me what’s going on?” He asks sitting up on the exam bed he woke up on.

Cas looks up at him from the uncomfortable looking chair where he sits.

“Well, you’re not unwell, you’re coming into your powers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the shift from having a large amount of Cas focus with a small amount of Dean focus in the first few chapters to only Dean focus now isn't too disruptive, it just flowed this way because it's easier to describe what is happening to Dean when the focus is on Dean (besides I feel like I can get into his head a little easier), there will be more Cas focus in future as the story demands it.
> 
> P.S. If you made it to here then thank you for reading!


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